Harry W. Smith
( 1872 – 1943 )
Photographer & Crayon Manufacturer
West Chester native Harry W. Smith operated a photography studio in Coatesville between 1896 and 1899 before purchasing the National Crayon Company and returning to West Chester. In 1918 he sold the company and moved to South Carolina where he operated a mine until his death in 1943.
Harry Walter Smith was born to Margaret and Stephen T. Smith in 1872. The family lived in West Chester, where Harry had four sisters and one brother.[1]
As a young man he was fascinated with photography and opened a professional studio in Coatesville in about 1896.[2] An advertisement that he placed in the Directory and Business Guide of Coatesville, Pennsylvania 1897 proclaimed:
“Harry W. Smith, Leading Photographer, Third Avenue near Main Street Dark tones and Engraving effects are very fashionable in portraits now. The new pictures are very rich in tone and are absolutely non-fadeable. Call and see display at: Smith’s Studio. Children’s pictures a successful specialty.”[3]
Smith provided the old favorite styles as well as the new ones. His billhead on his invoices advertised “Finest Work in Crayon, Ink, Pastel and Water Colors. Copying Old Pictures a Specialty.”[4]
He solicited customers for Christmas orders through an advertisement in the Morning Republican December 18, 1897, offering cabinet photographs priced from $1.50 to $4.00 per dozen. He directs customers to his studio in the Odd Fellows’ building at the corner of Third and Main Streets in Coatesville.[5] Smith’s Studio is even open in the evenings indicating that he could work totally by electric light.
Harry W. Smith, Sara, Edith & John Martin, 1896-1899, silver gelatin cabinet card, from the collection of the author. Note that Smith did not use an advertising imprint on the back of the card.
An advertisement in the Morning Republican of March 15, 1898, announced an improvement in his studio lighting:
“Our enterprising photographer, H.W. Smith, is making a change in his skylighting, which will be a grand improvement, an advantage both to himself and his patrons. The old light was a small affair and too far away for good use. The new light will be the length and height of the room or twice the size of the old one.”[6]
Despite the confusing description, we know that the new skylight was a vast improvement.
Smith can be found listed in county directories between 1896 and 1899. He is recorded as a photographer on Coatesville tax lists from 1897-1899.[7] However he sold his studio late in 1899 to H. Oakley Mott and purchased the National Crayon Company which operated on North Walnut Street at the corner of Prescott Alley in West Chester. Here he made crayons which were used in schools across the U.S. He sold the business in about 1918 and moved his family to North Augusta, South Carolina where he purchased a mine. Smith mined clay which was used in the production of crayons, Pyrex, linoleum and other products until his death in 1943.[8]
He left behind a wife, Lillian Forbes, formerly of Coatesville and a son, Walter and three grandchildren. Daughter Helen Hefley had preceded him in death.[9] Harry Smith’s body was returned to West Chester where the Harold D. Famous Funeral Home conducted a service for his friends and family.[10] He was interned in Greenmount Cemetery.[11]
Smith was active in community life. He was a 32nd degree Mason and while in West Chester was a member of the First Baptist Church. In South Carolina he attended the Presbyterian Church.[12]
©Pamela C. Powell, 2023
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Obituary, Harry W. Smith, Daily Local News (West Chester, PA) 23 August 1943. ↑
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Sibbald F. Boyd, Boyd’s Chester County, PA Directory for 1896-97, (Philadelphia: C.E. Howe Company, 1986). ↑
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Directory and Business Guide to Coatesville, Pennsylvania, 1897, (Coatesville, PA: Board of Trade, 1897), p. 16. ↑
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Invoice, Harry W. Smith to Mrs. Ramsey, 1898, Ephemera file, Library Chester County History Center, West Chester, PA. ↑
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Morning Republican, (Coatesville, PA), 18 December 1897. ↑
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Morning Republican, (Coatesville, PA), 15 March 1898 ↑
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Chester County Tax Lists, 1897, 1898, 1899, Chester County Archives and Records Services, West Chester, PA. ↑
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Obituary, Harry W. Smith, Daily Local News (West Chester, PA) 23 August 1943. ↑
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Ibid ↑
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Funeral notices, Daily Local News, (West Chester, PA), 23 August 1943. ↑
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Harry Walter Smith, Findagrave.com Harry Walter Smith (1872-1943) – Find a Grave Memorial ↑
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Obituary, Harry W. Smith, Daily Local News (West Chester, PA) 23 August 1943. ↑
